Constant Motion

I finally finished The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Vol. 2, and one of the things that wore ME out just upon reading was all of the constant moves from home to home. For instance, for some reason, I didn't grasp until now that she just lived at her last apartment (23 Fitzroy Road in London) for a mere 2 months. And before that, at her first purchased home, Court Green in North Tawton, for only 15 months.

Nowadays, you see multiple online articles about the most stressful events in a person's life: Births, deaths, illness, separation/divorce, new job/loss of job, moving/purchasing a home. So today, and probably since the self-awareness movement of the '70s, we're all more aware of why we're feeling the crappy way we do when going through such things. But did they stop and think about that in the '50s and early '60s?

In the last 3 years of her life (early '60 to early '63), Plath had 2 births; a miscarriage and an appendectomy (and multiple serious sinus infections/fevers during which she was bedridden); separation from her husband; constant uncertainty about money because no regular job; and 3 different places to live, including a major home purchase. 

Oh, and during the same exact 3-year time frame: She published her first book of poems (The Colossus) and wrote her second book of poems (posthumously published Ariel) AND wrote/published her first novel (The Bell Jar). WHILE having kids, WHILE being sick, WHILE having severe relationship problems, WHILE struggling to find freelance jobs and publishers, WHILE moving from place to place.

Even if you're young, your body/mind/spirit are just going to snap as a result of all of that. There was not a second of rest or relaxation or time for contemplation.

January 1960: Rents flat with husband Ted Hughes at 3 Chalcot Square, London.
April 1960: Daughter Frieda born.
October 1960: The Colossus published in UK.

February 1961: Miscarriage.
March 1961: Appendectomy.
Spring 1961: Begins writing The Bell Jar.
August/September 1961: Purchases and moves to Court Green, North Tawton.

January 1962: Son Nicholas born.
Summer 1962: Hughes and Assia Wevill begin affair while Plath's mother is visiting.
October 1962: Hughes leaves Court Green.
December 1962: Plath moves with babies to 23 Fitzroy Road, London.

January 1963: Bell Jar published in UK.
February 1963: Plath kills herself.

Pre-1960: Above, I used the last 3 years of her life as an example, but prior to 1960, Plath was also constantly in shifting and/or stressful situations (though, post-suicide attempt, many are just the normal experimentation of youth: who to love, where to live, what to do. Though I must emphasize: She wasn't just shuffling about as most of us do at that age! She was writing and competing for prizes and scholarships and publishing the whole time):

Summer 1953: After Mademoiselle guest intern position in NYC, attempts to kill herself.
Fall 1953: Psychiatric treatment.
January 1954: Re-enters Smith.
June 1955: Graduates Smith.
September 1955: Sails to UK to attend Cambridge.
February/June 1956: Meets/Marries Ted Hughes.
June 1957: Graduates from Cambridge, sails to US with Hughes.
September 1957: Teaches at Smith. Lives in Northampton, Mass.
June 1958: Leaves teaching position at Smith.
September 1958: Moves to Boston, works at part-time jobs.
Spring 1959: Attends Lowell's poetry course in Boston.
July-August 1959: Travels across America with Hughes, becomes pregnant.
Fall 1959: Two months at Yaddo writer's colony.
December 1959: Sails back to UK.